March 8th 2011LONDON: Nickelodeon Studios, Visit / Portfolio Crit!
This experience was very exciting for me. During my visit with Paul Roberts the freelancer he was able to get me a visit to Nickelodeon Studios as he had worked for them in the past. Nickelodeon was my favourite channel as a child, so this was a big deal for me.
I was greeted by a lady called Kim. My visit consisted of viewings of sets, props and packages created for Nick Jr. I was able to sit in on a programme that hasn't been aired yet, being only at the editing stage.
During this I got to meet the director, who seemed very interested in what I have been doing at Uni, explaining what I was doing for my Major Project and asked to look at some of my work. I showed my Audrey Piece and Green and Blacks from my final year. Kim sat in on this and they both agreed my stop-motion was great. I explained this was a method I hadn't yet decided if I wanted to use throughout the whole of the package of my children's programme. The director stated that it wasn't a good idea to use it fully as not many children's programmes were fully stop-motioned, explaining it was mainly used in the 70s and since then it randomly comes in and out of fashion. I had before this began thinking of using stop-motion for the set and creating my characters in a 2-D animation form, this may help clarify my decision. This may also give a lovely contrast of mediums.
In the same folder was my nature versus man video from first year, I was reluctant to show this but they urged me anyway as the director explained he likes to see a mixture of mediums. After showing it he said he liked the edits and music, I was surprised as if I had the chance to re-do this, two years down the line I reckon I could improve this.
He had a quick look through my recent sketchbook for my children's programme and he gave me great advice in regards to the creation of a piece for young children. He placed pressure on the point that everything should be kept soft, specifically the edges of specific objects or characters, no sharp angles only curves. He specified target audience how 1-2 and a half years age group are completely different to that of a 3-5 years age group, how they have developed dramatically over short period of time. However he stated a programme that has been watched by a 2 year old could carry on watching the same programme until that child possibly is 6 years old, because he/she has been brought up with that programme, a feeling of nostalgia must come into the equation.
He went on to explain that everything must be simplified and slow in regards to story aswell.
He also suggested in terms of research to look at websites and watch a lot of children's television. I have done a lot of this already so is good to know I'm on the right track.
After the meeting with the director Kim took me up to her workspace and possibly showed me everything she had worked on while being at the company. She showed me many of her idents she had created for Nick Jr. Nick Jr is a channel more for the target audience I will be working for, 3-5 years. They were lovely cute and quirky and thought I would love to be doing this. Kim gave me her e-mail, telling me to keep in touch. I would love to send her my finalised children's piece and see what she thinks. This could be next on the agenda.
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